1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910815296203321

Autore

Gavigan Shelley A. M

Titolo

Hunger, horses, and government men : criminal law on the aboriginal plains, 1870-1905 / / Shelley A. M. Gavigan

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Vancouver, : published by UBC Press, : for the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, 2012

ISBN

0-7748-2254-6

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (301 p.)

Collana

Law & society, , 1496-4953

Disciplina

345

Soggetti

Indians of North America - Criminal justice system - Saskatchewan - History

Criminal law - Saskatchewan - History

Criminal courts - Saskatchewan - History

Criminal justice, Administration of - Saskatchewan - History

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

""Contents""; ""Illustrations""; ""Foreword""; ""Acknowledgments""; ""Introduction""; ""1  Legally Framing the Plains  and the First Nations ""; ""2  â€œOf Course No One Saw Themâ€?""; ""3  â€œPrisoner Never Gave Me Anything for What He Doneâ€?""; ""4  â€œMake a Better Indian of Himâ€?""; ""5  Six Women, Six Stories""; ""Conclusion""; ""Afterword""; ""Notes""; ""Bibliography""

Sommario/riassunto

Scholars often accept without question that the Indian Act (1876) criminalized First Nations. In this illuminating book, Shelley Gavigan argues that the notion of criminalization captures neither the complexities of Aboriginal participation in the criminal courts nor the significance of the Indian Act as a form of law. Gavigan draws on court files, police and penitentiary records, and newspaper accounts and insights from critical criminology to interrogate state formation and criminal law in the Saskatchewan region of the North-West Territories between 1870 and 1905. By focusing on Aboriginal people's participation in the courts rather than on narrow categories such as "the state" and "the accused," Gavigan allows Aboriginal defendants, witnesses, and informants to emerge in vivid detail and tell the story in their own terms. Their experiences stand as evidence that the criminal



law and the Indian Act operated in complex and contradictory ways that included both the mediation and the enforcement of relations of inequality.